PT Freeport Indonesia is targeting its smelter located in Gresik, East Java to be able to produce copper cathodes in August 2024.

VP Government Relations Jakarta and Smelter Technical Support PT Freeport Indonesia Harry Pancasakti said that the smelter that is being built will complete its physical construction at the end of 2023, or in about two months.

According to Harry, when the main equipment has been installed and from January to May 2024, pre-commissioning and commissioning activities will be able to be completed.

"Insha Allah, in June 2024 we will start the operational phase of this new smelter," said Harry at the SOE & Economic Forum in Jakarta, on Thursday (12/10).

"We will only be able to start producing concentrate purified into copper cathodes in August 2024," he explained.

On that occasion, Harry also said that the smelter that was being built was the smelter with the largest single line design in the world. This smelter will have a copper smelter capacity of 1.7 million tons per year.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized that smelters were the foundation for Indonesia to become a developed country in the future.

The Head of State said that the existence of several smelter factories in the country would increase Indonesia's competitiveness and change economic dependence from the consumption sector to the production sector.

Jokowi also encouraged the production results from the smelter factory to be integrated with the results of other mining commodities spread across various regions in the country. Starting from nickel in Sulawesi, bauxite in Bintan and West Kalimantan, tin in Bangka Belitung, to copper foil in Gresik.

"So it will be integrated into EV batteries, lithium batteries, and it will be integrated again into electric vehicles," he said some time ago.

He also hopes that the smelter factory construction project, which has reached 72%, will be completed next year. "We hope that everything will be completed before May 2024," he said.

Image source: Shutterstock/tss

Source: www.gatra.com/Freeport Targetkan Produksi Katoda Tembaga Di Smelter Gresik Beroperasi Agustus 2024